Tricks For Playing

How To Enjoy Golf Playing Against Strong Winds And Win

When the winds start to blow rough, it’s natural the score marches up north. Windy conditions are not a common occurrence, but a good golfer is always prepared to face such conditions. Strong winds affect a golfer in two ways – (i) it changes the dynamics of the game. You can’t play your normal game, and (ii) it affects a player psychologically. You hit a couple of bad shots because of the wind and suddenly you lose confidence and focus. In this article we’ll share a few tricks to overcome the obstacles and enjoy golf playing against strong winds.

Prepare yourself mentally

Strong winds will induce you to make errors – accept it. You’ll have a bad start and initially you’ll make errors. But, until you get used to the wind, be calm, don’t panic, and try to adjust to the windy conditions. Just to soothe your nerves, repeat to yourself that rough wind is also affecting other golfers on the course.

Choose the right club

Even in rough windy conditions the ball will travel a fair distance when hit squarely with a club with less loft. It’s a well known fact that the higher the ball flies the more it gets affected by the wind. So, choose a low loft club and hit the ball square.

Adjust your stance

To beat the wind you need to have better control over the ball. With more control you’ll have absolute power over the speed and height of the ball. For better control widen your stance so that you look shorter. From this position you won’t be able to turn your body faster and the swing will also be shorter. These changes in your stance and swing will give you greater control over the ball and better chance to beat the wind.

Grip down the club

Most often while playing a shot, right-handed golfers have their left hand at the edge of the grip. That’s fine for a normal stroke. To have better command over the swing, grip slightly (an inch or two) down the club.

Use the wind to your advantage

The term ‘beat the wind’ which we used above doesn’t mean you can take on the wind and get the ball through. What we meant was to trick the wind to help you with the shot. For instance, if the direction of the wind is left to right, aim and hit the ball to the left of the target. The wind moving left to right will guide the ball in the proper direction.